6-Week Challenge

I'm reading a book right now called Eat to Live, by Dr.Joel Fuhrman.   (http://www.drfuhrman.com/weightloss/why.aspx)

His basic premise is that overweight and most chronic lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure can be reversed permanently with dramatic changes in your nutrition. This is not exactly a revelation, but he argues his case using a lot of science and a lot of statistics which really drive the point home.

He advocates for dramatic change, saying moderation is insufficient to counteract our horrendous eating habits as a society. The basic concepts are this: much less animal protein and animal fat, huge amounts of fruits and vegetables (approximately half cooked and half raw), lots of beans, moderate amounts of nuts and seeds, and small amounts of unprocessed whole grains.

He also says that vegetable oils (canola, olive, etc) are processed and unhealthy, because they are essentially the fat of the vegetable stripped of its natural vessel of fiber and nutrients. This isn't necessarily surprising to me, but is something I definitely hadn't thought about. I was on a quest to get more unsaturated fats into my diet for heart health, and was basically using as much oil in my cooking as I wanted.

One of the points he argues in his book is that there is no such thing as being too thin. He says at several points that the thinner you are, the more healthy you will be. And that most people who feel they've reached their ideal weight are not nearly thin enough. I am obviously not a doctor, so I can't speak to the medical validity of that point, but I think the very concept is a dangerous one. He probably does not have the perspective of a teenage girl agonizing over her body weight and dieting dangerously in the forefront of his consciousness.

Regardless, I am sold on the general idea of a vegan diet free of processed foods and sugars (and I was before I read this book). I feel motivated to take my nutrition to the next level. He challenges the readers to a very strict 6-week introductory period where the diet is very limited and the body goes through a detoxification process. It isn't hugely different from the breakfasts and lunches I already have on a daily basis, but it will mean dramatic changes for my dinnertime routine (and finally completely ridding my diet of sugar).

Basically, you can eat as much as you want--there is no calorie counting or any kind of quantity restrictions--but it must be almost completely plant-derived, and about 75% vegetables and fruits.  I am still going to live by my normal rule of doing my best 90% of the time, and letting myself have a break 10% of the time (which he also advocates). It is not what you eat sometimes that makes you healthy; it is what you eat most of the time.

Telling people about it is a much more effective way to commit to something. If you were trying to quit smoking, you wouldn't keep it a secret--you would ask for support. So, I figure I might as well tell everyone and hopefully that will keep me motivated late at night when I'm staring at the Halloween candy in my cabinet and trying to remember why I thought this was a good idea...

I talked to Sydney and Katie about it this morning. Sydney's response was, "Go, Mom!" and Katie said, "Why can't we just all eat like that?"  I love my kids!